 flanaess thumb 250px right map of the flanaess warning large image the flanaess is the common name for the lands in the eastern half of the continent of oerik named for the original race of people to inhabit the majority of this area the human#flan flannae the flanaess is nearly the entirety of the known world for the common citizen the flanaess is bounded on the west by the sea of dust and dry steppes the remains of the ancient suloise imperium suloise and baklunish empire empires to the east is the vast solnor ocean the largest body of water on oerth the north is bordered by the icy sea a frigid ocean while the south is marked by the amedio jungle the olman islands and hepmonaland history history history the history of the flanaess in truth stretches back for many millennia the ancient elf elven and dwarf dwarven empires that spanned the lands the mythical ur-flannae the realms of the legendary vecna the wind dukes of aaqa and their fights against the lords of chaos however little to no record survives these times and demihumans are oddly reticent to speak on these ancient periods thus for most the history of these lands dates back to the twin cataclysms nearly 1000 years ago the original cause for the animosity between the suloise and baklunish is lost today but the end result of their final war is visible to any who have looked at a map after decades of conflict the suloise mages of power decided once and for all to end the conflict and wipe out the baklunish entirely they called down the invoked devastation ravaging the baklunish lands and leaving what is today known as the dry steppes this attack resulted in an apocalypse so complete that even today its true form remains unknown entire cities were purged and almost no sign remains of the great civilization that thrived from the sulhaut mountains to the dramidj ocean in retaliation a small surviving cadre of baklunish wizard-clerics taking refuge at the ancient tovag baragu brought down the rain of colorless fire the skies above the suel imperium are said to have opened and all beneath them were reduced to ash this attack not only wiped out the imperium but brought disaster to this entire area resulting in the now-deadly sea of dust these two areas are geographical reminders of this unbridled magical power today lost to all people thousands survived the early years of the conflict by fleeing east over the crystalmists the oeridians a confederation of barbaric tribes in close proximity to the warring empires took the wars a sign to migrate eastwards this group was the first to voyage into the lands of the flan the flanaess suloise refugees soon followed behind them sometimes working with the oeridians to pacify the land but much more often warring over which race would conquer it for over two centuries these groups fought for control of the land between the crystalmist mountains and the solnor ocean and though many suloise exploited the most vile of magics they lost the majority of these fights and were pushed outwards to the periphery to the flanaess meanwhile rather than escape to the east the baklunish chose to escape to the north toward the yatil mountains or the shores of the dramidj ocean where they continue to flourish today and as the human tribesmen spread out in all directions over these lands they were soon followed by the nonhuman mercenaries employed by both sides in the ancient conflict many of the foul creatures which today plague the flanaess are descendants of these races who left trailing after human migrants in search of plunder food and slaves as the migrants spread through a number of kingdoms and nations were founded of these two have survived to the present day the first is in the west deep in the sheldomar valley eighty years following the twin cataclysms the suel houses of house rhola rhola and house neheli neheli joined with oeridian tribes on the banks of the sheldomar pledging themselves to mutual protection and dominion of the western flanaess this nation the kingdom of keoland set the course of history for this region for the next centuries defending the valley from outside forces time and again though the nature of this protection changed from year to year in one case a militaristic empire having overwhelmed the entire valley in another a near-xenophobic and isolationist nation merely defending its own interest the sheldomar was able to retain its independence from outside forces in the east the other major nation to be formed in this time period was just beginning the most powerful of all the oeridian tribes the aerdi reached the flanmi river from there they began once more to spread outwards conquering indigenous peoples and fellow migrants alike before long the kingdom of aerdy ruled the whole of the eastern flanaess and began to spread out towards the west they slowly began overcoming any that may have posed a threat to their kingdom defeating the last foe of such a nature almost 700 years ago at the battle of a fortnight fortnight's length following one hundred and ten years of relative peace the leader of aerdy was crowned the first overking nasran overking nasran made his declaration of universal peace and with aerdy having holdings as far west as the yatils such a declaration was held true by many on the day of this declaration the sun rose in the east bringing in the first day of the first common year this peace held for centuries but by 213 cy the overkings of aerdy began to grow lax caring more for personal power and prestige than the affairs of their vassals in more distant lands they slowly allowed the great kingdom to begin crumbling in an era known today as the age of great sorrow as each sovereign passed he was replaced with a more dimwitted less competent successor until the outer dependencies of aerdy began declaring their independence the viceroyalty of ferrond was the first becoming the kingdom of furyondy but over time others began to pull away from the increasingly-more-ineffectual government by 356 cy the ruling dynasty of aerdy the celestial house of house rax rax had grown especially decadent in response to their slow slide the western province of nyrond declared itself free of the great kingdom electing one if its own nobles as king of the domain and although aerdy finally attempted to act to prevent losing land so near the center of the kingdom an ill-timed raid from barbarians of the thillonrian peninsula forced aerdy to divert troops and allow the kingdom to slip away easily the darkest chapter of aerdy began in 437 cy for it was this year in which the upstart house naelax assassinated the rax overking and inaugurated a series of civil wars known today as the turmoil between crowns within a decade ivid i of house naelax naelax was installed as ruler and recognized as the undisputed overking of all aerdy rumors began to spread of the association between house naelax and demonic forces and the once-mighty malachite throne of the great kingdom became known as the fiend-seeing throne the formerly powerful and upright kingdom of aerdy slowly became a bastion of evil and cruelty meanwhile the lands of the flanaess soon became familiar with a less-subtle form of evil when in 479 cy a minor despot in the howling hills left his domain to his son a being known only as iuz god iuz within a handful of years iuz conquered his neighbors and set up a small realm for himself tales were told by refugees of unmitigated evil as iuz built a road of skulls from the howling hills to his capital dorakaa the worst was yet to come as powerful divinations revealed iuz to in fact be the offspring of an unholy union between necromancer and demon; a half-fiend towering 7 feet in height and driven by a thirst for blood destruction and conquest to add to the danger within a few years of his emergence followers of iuz began expressing divine power iuz had risen to the rank of deity making any defeat of him that much more unlikely political struggles within furyondy prevented the king from acting decisively and iuz god iuz was allowed to expand unchecked his evil flourished for years until 505 cy when he mysteriously vanished in a day celebrated across the flanaess in his absence orc tribes and disloyal former subjects began dividing up the lands of iuz among themselves the realms of good furyondy chief among them may have been allowed to slip back into complacency were it not for a series of actions to follow the first of these came about through the formation of the horned society an association of evil ruling a land broken away from iuz iuz's leaderless realm they soon showed themselves a threat nearly as great as iuz himself had been and it was only their smaller size which allowed them to be fought off second was the rise of the notorious horde of elemental evil a collection of cultists and villains centered at a small temple south of the city of verbobonc this group was led by the former consort of iuz an abyssal fiend by the name of zuggtmoy and was not vanquished until 569 cy at the battle of emridy meadows where prince thrommel led forces from furyondy veluna and verbobonc among other realms to victory routing the horde and destroying their temple finally faithful orc and human servants of the missing iuz became fanatic in their devotion they began leading cults devoted to iuz god iuz 's return and it was not long before members of these cults began expressing magical power iuz though currently vanished was still existent somewhere and those lands of good could do naught but await his return 